“Given that for many Eastbourne babies one of their first life experiences is the journey home from Hastings hospital, which is longer than 30 minutes, will the department look at these findings, consider whether further study is required and offer reassurance to parents rightly concerned by the research?”

Health Minister David Mowatt told Mrs Ansell the department would look at the study and report back to Parliament.

The pilot study, funded by the charity the Lullaby Trust, discovered a ‘worrying’ increase in heart and breathing rates in young babies under eight weeks old strapped into rear-facing car seats.

The 40 youngsters were placed in a motion simulator designed to replicate the effects of placing a newborn baby in a car seat as if they are just leaving hospital for the first time.

Each was placed at a 40-degree angle and ‘travelled’ at 30mph along a straight road with no bumps for half-an-hour.

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